The Walker family of Osprey, Florida, included father Cliff (25 years old), mother Christine (24 years old), a son named Jimmie (three years old), and a daughter named Debbie (two . Each new detective who came along just couldn't get to the last piece of the puzzle. It was among Florida's oldest unsolved crimes on record, notorious for its brutality, as well as for a pool of suspects that numbered over 600. Even the worst fears of his imagination couldnt have prepared him for the carnage that greeted him. Christine, 24, bubbly and spirited, hung back with McLeod's wife. Since 2004, multiple detectives had sought answers in DNA. . Recently, she'd told Myers she'd found a picture of Hickock with two small marks on his chin. He learned, too, of the deaths of her husband, Cliff, 3-year-old Jimmie and 23-month-old Debbie. June 30, 2022 . Hopes of solving 1959 quadruple murder cold case are dashed as police fail to connect 'In Cold Blood' killers with slain Florida family By Ap Reporter 05:43 14 Aug 2013, updated 09:22 14 Aug 2013 In a 2020 email, a spokesperson responded to a question about whether the agency was seeking boot testing this way: "We are not pursuing any of Det. After running some errands that day, 24-year-old Christine Walker arrived home alone, at around 4:00 PM. Some families, she knew, played their traumas over and over 50 or 60 years later. She was at Myers' home when he spoke with the detective on the phone. [5] The pair checked into a Miami Beach motel, about four hours from Osprey, and checked out on the morning of the Walker murders. Through the years there have been almost 600 suspects but to this date, the case remains unsolved. Yet, the test showed that he was highly likely lying when asked if hed withheld information. Lucy wasnt one to eavesdrop, so all she remembered from hearing one side of her friend's conversation was that at one point they were talking about exchanging their current car. Clues found during the investigation included a bloody cowboy boot and a fingerprint on the handle of the bathtub faucet. Perry Edward Smith (October 27, 1928 - April 14, 1965) was one of two career criminals convicted of murdering the four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, United States, on November 15, 1959, a crime that was made famous by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood. But, as she would find time and again, neither Kansas nor the Las Vegas Police Department could locate any of that evidence for her. In the end, though, the couple drove back, pausing at the ranch barn to pick up cattle feed. When arrested in Las Vegas, McGath found, Smith was carrying a pocket knife similar to one missing from Cliff's pocket. Several problems. Grant's department store, seven miles from the Walker home, on the day of the murders. Sign up for The Lineups newsletter and get the creepiest cases delivered straight to your inbox. | https://linktr.ee/MichaelEast. The leads went nowhere, and the case was soon going cold until police believed they had a break in 1962 when serial killer Emmett Monroe Spencer claimed responsibility. Cliff was ambushed and killed by gunshot. Unfortunately, the sheriff noticed when he walked in that several things had been done to contaminate the crime scene. Christine had grown up in one of those households. Love triangles can certainly make people do crazy things, but killing small children? In 1959, the Walker family was getting ready to spend their second Christmas together as a family of four. Such killings the extermination of an entire family don't happen every day, but they're not so statistically rare as . Robbery was ruled out pretty quickly, though some things were taken from the house. Smith owned black engineer boots with a Cat's Paw rubber cushion sole, featuring circular pads, a little smaller than a quarter. A chilling account of two murders with multiple victims. It seems almost sure that there was more than one attacker, with forensic evidence discovering a dark-colored hair in the bathroom and a long blonde hair inside Christine Walkers dress. The waitress reported all of this to the police, but didnt provide a name for the man. One witness said that the taller of the two men "had a scratched-up face. McLeod knocked at the front door, getting increasingly louder as he became more alarmed at the lack of response. For those few crime drama aficionados who aren't familiar with the case, in late November of 1959 two petty felons, Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Smith, arrived at a house near Holcomb, Kansas. Not long afterward, Cliff also returned home with Jimmie and Debbie. But you need dedicated detectives primarily working on cold cases, and across the country in law enforcement, we're not seeing that.". It was hard to imagine, McGath often told Myers, in their sometimes meandering phone calls, that anyone wouldn't classify the men as suspects. He and his sister, Novella Cascarella, had spoken with the agency more than 15 years ago about exhuming Christine. The house was dark as McLeod approached, but as he got closer, he saw a light flickering through the window. But Jimmie didnt die. Three-year-old Jimmie entered the house at the same time as his father and was also shot. Some think Christine called one of them on the phone from the McLeod residencethis could have been their way in. Due to the passage of time, only partial samples could be retrieved from the bodies, and these could not be matched to samples taken from the Walker home. Now, Myers asked her, "What I don't get is, how did they get in the house with the dogs sitting there?" Clark - with his "never-say-die" attitude, per one supervisor - had found a niche in such cases. It is therefore believed that Smith and Hickock may have gained entry to the Walker home on the pretense of selling their car. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. In any case, a family was wiped out in the most terrible circumstance, and the killings remain yet another dark and unsolved stain in Floridas long and inglorious criminal history. Giasone wasn't sure why previous leaders didn't pursue additional testing 10 years ago. The taking of these items from the crime scene is suggestive that the killing was directly targeting Christine and the family rather than the tragic results of a home invasion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkZUtJDbwn8. But they were on the run, skipping across the country after the murders as the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, or the KBI, had just started to decipher the crime scene. They listened as a fellow inmate bragged about a farmer who kept lots of cash in a safe. Why kill the children unless the perpetrator had been recognizable? She said one of her regular customers had got drunk at the bar one night and began crying, saying that he had killed some people in Osprey, Florida, when he was a young man and mentioned the name Walker. She believed he did occasional work about town and was a gun enthusiast. Homicide detectives often are told to work on older cases when they have time. As daylight broke on Dec. 20, 1959, half a dozen lawmen stood in the living room and stared down in silence. The public looked at Smith and Hickock as serious suspects for the Walker case, and their whereabouts at the time suggest that their involvement isnt impossible. Capt. They were in the area at the time and had already committed one atrocity. While a polygraph test appeared to clear them of the Walker murders, at least one expert has asserted that polygraph machines of the early 1960s were notoriously inaccurate. High among them: The killers made infamous in Truman Capote's true crime classic "In Cold Blood.". www.boxingaddictions.net > Blog > Uncategorized > interactive scene of 1959 walker family murders. After the murder, rumors flew around that Christine was having an affair with Curtis McCall. Her voice even sounded different. Capote was obsessed with the case of the . The notes for the planned book ran to 8,000 pages. Yes! https://t.co/zyzLrUZLRB. He told a Sarasota newspaper reporter he relied on Kansas authorities to ask those questions. Experts blame the drop largely on slimmed-down police budgets and hundreds of unsolved serial killer cases. Months later in 2013, McGath was at her desk in Sarasota reading a report on the DNA from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Indeed, the Walker family killings are given several pages in In Cold Blood, the author dismissing any connection. Scientists managed to capture partial DNA for both of the men, however. This was a very odd thing to do. He used to live there. McLeod later stated that it was odd . "[5] The pair was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 30, 1959, for the Clutter murders, and were executed by hanging on April 14, 1965. There came a point that his older sister, Novella, couldn't handle going anymore. 2. There was no shortage of suspects. December 19, 1959 was no doubt a day like any other in Osprey, FL. He stopped at a local gas station and inquired about the location of the Walker home, as if looking for Cliff. Rare photos show the "In Cold Blood" house in Holcomb, Kan., where the Clutter family was murdered was opened to the public in 2006 when the property was put up for sale. One of them had a scratched face. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat. Perry Smith. Some were also bludgeoned . Two suspects. Some try to blame the attack on Christine. ", But he never went to Kansas to interview Hickock and Smith. The murder is of particular note because it potentially involved the suspects of the murders that inspired the creative non-fiction novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Only partial DNA could be retrieved, possibly due to degradations of the DNA samples over the decades or contamination in storage, making the outcome one of uncertainty (neither proving nor disproving the involvement of Smith and Hickock). Maggie and Paul Murdaugh. interactive scene of 1959 walker family murders. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Keep in mind that over 500 suspects have been questioned since 1959. / AP. "I've got mothers calling me who want to get their sons out of prison. It did not match the semen at the scene. The following year, the mother of three would leave the agency to prioritize family. Safe house. Here are 10 revelations from the series: 1. About a month earlier, Smith and Hickock slaughtered the four-member Clutter family in Kansas, creating the tragedy that was immortalized in author Truman Capote's 1966 true . The year before, she had convinced a judge in Kansas to exhume the remains of Hickock and Smith to see if their DNA matched an unknown profile in Christine's underwear. There are countless other rumors about other individuals or groups who could have committed these crimes. Now Myers related to McGath what he'd heard from Clark: Though not a conclusive match, Tooker could not be discounted. interactive scene of 1959 walker family murders. Instead, it was parked a cars width to one side, possibly indicating that another car was parked in her usual spot when she arrived. Myers had grown up around people devastated by the family's deaths, relatives who also made trips over the years to the sheriff's office, who visited Christine's and Cliff's graves and held them close. The bodies of the two men executed for the 1959 murders of a Kansas family that became infamous in Truman Capote's true-crime book "In Cold Blood" were exhumed Tuesday in an effort to solve . Cold Blooded: The Clutter Family Murders: With Beth Tedrow, Larry Welch, Kevin Bascue, Gwyneth Frack. In all, hundreds of suspects were interviewed and given polygraphs. It generated pieces of two people's DNA, one male and one female. Hickock and Smith confessed to the murders of the Clutter family, for which they were hanged in April of 1965. Tire tracks from the mystery car were likely gone now that there was a police vehicle parked in its place. Meanwhile, Tooker was seen as a local pervert, having tried to kiss Christine in the past, and regularly making indecent propositions. One or two days prior, a man said they had asked to fix his bent fender for money, and a gas station owner said they'd asked about auto paint shops. In 2012, their bodies were exhumed to have DNA extracted to . Authorities believe that 24-year-old Christine Walker arrived at the family's farm home around 4pm on Saturday, December 19, 1959, where she was raped, then murdered by gunshot. Myers was 7 when a neighbor burst into his living room to announce what she'd heard on the radio. The Clutter murders and subsequent investigation were documented in Truman Capote's true crime novel, In Cold Blood. A special was scrawled on the chalkboard: half a barbecue chicken and two sides for $7.95. . "[12], In August 2013, the Sarasota County Sheriff's office announced they were unable to find a match between the DNA of either Perry Smith or Richard Hickock with the samples in the Walker family murder. A bloodied high heel shoe was found at the scene, suggesting that Christine fought hard against her attacker, and possibly injured him. He said what was thought to be sperm was more likely Christine's blood or skin cells. He said . Consequently, investigators have stated that Smith and Hickock still remain the most viable suspects. But like other detectives, he had to handle them alongside other investigations. Writing on true crime, mysteries, politics, history, popular culture, and more. Officers found, beneath the car seat, a toddler shirt and a pink jacket that could have matched Christine's dress, as well as an Army gas can and burlap bags that could have come from Cliff's military-style Jeep. However, based on the personal items that were stolen, Katherine Ramsland, of the University of Pennsylvania, finds Smith and Hickock unlikely and instead suspects that the killer knew at least one member of the Walker family. All rights reserved. While the killers were still at large, legendary writer Truman Capote learned of the killings and decided to write about the slaughter, traveling to Kansas alongside childhood friend Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mocking Bird. However, in 2012, the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office once again began to look into a possible link, having originally considered them suspects as early as 1960 around the time of their arrest. With Hickock and Smith long dead and now reburied, though, its likely their connection to the Walker murders will remain strictly hypothetical. memorial page for Clifford "Cliff" Walker (16 Oct 1934-19 Dec 1959), Find a Grave Memorial ID . [2] Jimmie and Debbie were then murdered. First, he turned on "Gunsmoke" - their daily routine. For all of the agency's early efforts, even obsession, investigators left stones unturned, resulting in dozens of men in the tiny Sarasota County town living under the frost of suspicion, many until their deaths. Somebody was inside but ignoring his calls. McCall underwent three separate polygraph tests, and during each one, the suspect was so nervous that they all ended inconclusively. She also was there when he spoke with former Det. Sadly, it never came. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. The day before she died, Christine told her mother and mother-in-law that Cliff had been in a fight and "liked to got killed yesterday.". Worrying that the family had succumbed to a gas leak, he broke in . The day before, the Walker family had driven into nearby Sarasota to run errands. 1. To be sure, Clark had told Myers, scientists would have to pinpoint Christine's DNA and remove it from the mixture. He said the agency remains committed, however long it takes. He'd made a promise. Police are said to have investigated Butchs father, but never even spoke to Butch. The Walkers dwelled amongst country folk, whose women were sorted by their morals and men by their prowess roping cattle or catching hogs. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement had lost an early semen sample from Christine's underwear. On December 19th, 1959, an entire family was found brutally murdered in Florida. The slaying of . Joe Giasone, a 30-year veteran of the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, said the agency has 32 cold cases, ranging from the 1959 Walker murders up to a 2019 missing boater. What started as a robbery ended in the violent deaths of the mother, father, and two teenaged children. McLeod passed a polygraph and was quickly eliminated in any case. Clark hoped to test the underwear stain containing the sperm cell. Could they be from Christine's heel? Meanwhile, the head of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation told a reporter that, had he been facing a similar situation, "I'd have had an investigator down here weeks ago.". McGath's recommendations at this time.". He drowned the toddler in this water. Cliff didnt take the time he would ordinarily take to unload the cattle feed he had bought in town before going inside. She didn't want to cross a line. Last Updated On: November 20th, 2019. He hooked up his horse trailer, loaded his horse, and set off in good spirits for the day ahead. There was a problem. They are also the main suspects for the massacre of the Walker family in Florida a month after the Clutter murders. This didnt alarm Christine, and logically, the occupant of that car was then known to her, letting them in before being attacked. COLD BLOODED: THE CLUTTER FAMILY MURDERS is a docuseries that focuses on the crime that shocked the nation - the 1959 brutal murder of four members of the Clutter family. And the DNA from Christine's underwear, the report concluded, wasn't theirs. They had decided to unearth Christine from her grave in the next month. Still, eight years off the job, she felt a certain duty to him. Courtesy of Las Vegas Review-Journal Archive. Kansas authorities, hearing of the Walker murders, suggested Sarasota's sheriff take a look. With a little investigation, however, it was determined that so much information had been leaked to the media that any civilian could have that kind of knowledge of the crime. [6] The case remains open. In this photo taken Oct. 19, 2009, the former home of the Herbert Clutter family is seen in Holcomb, Kan. Fifty years ago, the home was the scene of the brutal murder of Clutter, his wife Bonnie . Christine left a few minutes before 3:30, but Cliff had some chores to finish with Don. Hickock soon concocted a plan to rob the familys safe and flee to Mexico, enlisting Smith, who had also once been his cellmate. This was such a young family. ". "The morning of the murders all bus drivers were told to avoid that street due to the caution tape scene. In Florida, several larger departments - including Tampa, Jacksonville and Miami-Dade - have such teams. Brandon Clark. In her final report in 2013, McGath said she believed there was enough circumstantial evidence to tie Hickock and Smith to the Walker murders. Whether they were already in the house or Christine let them in is unknown for sure, but it seems likely the reason the family car was in a different location is that somebody else had parked in the family spot. So when he called one day in late August 2022, she responded. However, the Clutter family killing resulted from false information, with the home deliberately targeted in the belief it contained significant cash. Hickock had once said his philosophy was to "leave no witnesses.". The only information we have about Christines romantic life comes from tabloids, so we should obviously take this with a grain of salt. Don McLeod got up at 5:30am on December 20th, 1959 in Osprey, Florida and headed over to his friend Cliff Walkers place so they could go out together to hunt wild hogs. And Pat promised her he would make sure to keep it alive, to fight for a resolution. He and Kimberly McGath went back to 2007, when she expressed an interest in the languishing Walker file. At the time of the murders, the Walkers had been thinking about buying a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air, and this was the same car that Smith and Hickock had stolen back in Kansas, using it during their flight across the country. As he saw his own health slipping, he felt the weight of that vow. ", "Did 'In Cold Blood' killers murder Sarasota's Walker family in '59? She had no hard feelings, she said, but wished the sheriff's office had allowed her to keep pursuing the men. What does society owe, say, the family of Cliff and Christine Walker? Tooker, a 65-year-old retired railroad telegrapher, had made advances on Christine, which she rebuffed. Truman Capote devoted several pages of In Cold Blood to the murder of the Walkers, but ultimately, concluded that Hickock and Smith couldnt have been the killers, as they had alibis. In 2010, however, over 50 years after the crime, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office took another crack at the Walker family murders case. The sheriff had Hickock and Smith's pictures published on the front page of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. There have been minor developments in the case in the years since the scent went cold. Parking his truck outside the Walker family home on the 100,000 acres Palmer Ranch, McLeod will have noticed the darkness emanating from the house. Even after Christine married, authorities documented instances of half a dozen men propositioning her, patting her on the rear, grabbing her, trying to kiss her, especially when they had been drinking, which was often. Stanley was committed to an asylum soon after the murders. A neighbor had observed him in the area the afternoon of the murders. They were seen a dozen times on the way. The ex-cons thought that the Clutters, who owned River Valley Farm in Holcomb, Kansas, had a safe containing $10,000 in cash in their house. Want more true crime? "This case don't want to be solved," he said. They also stopped to put air in the tires, and probably arrived home at about 4:30. To have a theory was one thing; to have proof was another. It's important to keep that in perspective.". When Don discovered the bodies of the Walker family, he was heartbroken and terrified. "Go ahead, dig her up," Myers told him, for a second time. interactive scene of 1959 walker family murders. However, its possible that the police already had the killers in custody. By continuing to browse, you accept the use of cookies and other technologies. McGath stopped calling Myers. With the possible perpetrators in the Walker murders dead - the "In Cold Blood" killers were executed in 1965; Tooker suffered a heart attack while playing the violin in 1963 - there is scant possibility of an arrest. The doubt, the what-ifs, kept at him like a jackhammer. On Nov. 15, 1959, the Clutter family home was the scene of an unforgettable tragedy. Peering through the windows, there was a very dim light on inside. On a couch in an adjoining room was 15-year-old Kenyon Neal Clutter, bound, gagged and shot in the head. Their funding has helped to solve about 2,000 violent crimes, including killings by the Golden State Killer and the Boston Strangler. Working at the scene, police began to search the home for evidence and soon discovered that items were missing; some of them seem quite bizarre. The discovery was interesting as it would be unlikely that a stranger to the area would know the shed. As the sun set shortly after 5 p.m. on December 30, 1959, a driver stopped a 1956 Chevrolet . But she was inactivating the case until new testing or evidence could advance it. Hickock and Smith slaughtered the Clutter family on November 15, 1959 in Holcomb, Kansas, about 34 days before the Walker family homicide. There is ample circumstantial evidence to suggest that Smith and Hickock may have been responsible for the Walker family murders. Some suspect Stanley Mauck, the man who read the meters for the Walker residence, as he was the same meter reader who serviced the home of another recently murdered family. [Via: Wikipedia; NY Daily News; Tampa Bay Times;Daily Mail], Featured Photo of The Walkers: What Lies Beyond. Tooker had apparently gone out to dinner, then went to perform in the violin section of the West Coast Symphony Orchestra. Myers leaned forward and rested his arms, sun-splotched from decades overseeing orange groves, on the table. She settled in and smiled. However, now Christine lay in a pool of blood at the entrance to the living room. Then she was taken to Jimmies bedroom and raped on the bed before being shot with a .22 firearm. An agency spokesperson declined to comment. However, the best suspect at the time was possibly Curtis McCall, a man described as a troublemaker with a history of violence. What exactly had Det. Brandon Clark done, since they'd met a year and a half earlier, to solve the murder of his sister? Within hours, a crush of cars crawled down the shell road just to see where the family had lived. Larry Hendricks wipes his eyes as he recounts finding the bodies of four members of the Clutter family that were murdered in Holcomb, Kan., in 1959. Still, it's a shame that the DNA test was inconclusive, because "Smith and Hickock did it" wasn't a terrible theory. Life in Ina was simple. interactive scene of 1959 walker family murders. It was time to give Clark, the Sarasota detective, another nudge. The order of killings of the family members down to the way they were killed. The family was young and growing and look set to be pillars of the community for many years to come. That's when she noticed that the supposed suspect's DNA was remarkably similar to Christine's own incomplete DNA sequence, gathered from her dress. And in Kansas, authorities had been focused on the Clutters, an agency spokeswoman said, and they have no evidence that officers interrogated the killers about the Walkers. Six days before Christmas 1959, the family went shopping in downtown Sarasota. Wilbur Tooker, a neighbor of the Walkers, was thought to have an obsession with her. Christine was likely still struggling at this point as the first bullet barely grazed her. Whether the one-year-olds death came from the bullet wound or the water was never ascertained. There was a bloody and discarded cowboy boot, a cellophane strip from a cigarette wrapper, and a fingerprint on the bathtub faucet. The bodies were exhumed on December 18, 2012, but it wasnt until August of 2013 that results were officially announced. Cliff was shot in the face immediately, followed by Jimmie, the young boy eating a lollipop hed been bought as a treat. Christine, his half-sister, was dead - beaten, raped and shot with two different handguns. Cliff and another ranch hand, Don McLeod, headed off to hunt. He realized something must be wrong in the house and took the decision to enter, cutting through the screen door. About a month before the Walker family slaying occurred, the Clutters were killed in their Holcomb, Kansas home by Perry Smith and Richard Dick Hickock. And what appeared to be a bloody fingerprint on the family's faucet apparently did not match either man. An interview with Joe Berlinger, director of 'Cold Blooded'. All Rights Reserved. On December 20th, 1959 Don McLeod, a coworker and friend of Cliff Walker, arrived at the Walker home at sunrise to pick up Cliff for hog hunting trip they had planned. Police hope genealogy sites will help solve more cold cases, Colombia wants to deport "cocaine hippos" to stop them from multiplying, Alex Murdaugh found guilty of murders of wife and son, How a tragic boating crash is connected to the family of Alex Murdaugh, killers made infamous in Truman Capote's true crime classic "In Cold Blood. Elbert had also previously made advances toward Christine, and family members thought the grief shown was fake, the suspect fainting twice at the funeral.

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